Actual incidence of bar fights?

This is a discussion on Actual incidence of bar fights? within the Off Topic & Humor Discussion forums, part of the The Back Porch category; Even to me this sounds to me like a stupid question, but I figure the answers will be entertaining as well as informative. Apologies in ...

Actual incidence of bar fights?

Even to me this sounds to me like a stupid question, but I figure the answers will be entertaining as well as informative. Apologies in advance: this sounds a bit like when I asked a military medical school interviewer a humorous question about M.A.S.H.... that he didn't find too humorous. Still, here goes:

Though I've enjoyed meals in many pubs in GB and Ireland, I've been in U.S. bars only a few times in my 53 years. Thus, about all of what I know about bars comes from Hollywood. I've seen some pretty spectacular bar fights on screen, from Tommy Steele to Jackie Chan to Mongolian yak-herders (in Indiana Jones - with Nazis!), to a couple from Star Trek (both the new one and Scotty's 'Garbage Scow' altercation, for those who appreciate the classics).

I've wondered, though: how often do altercations actually occur in bars? And are they usually merely one drunk vs. another, ending after one or two punches, or do epic battles actually take place? Or should I be asking about the parking lot outside of the bar instead?

Of course I wound enjoy stories in your responses, but any comments would be appreciated.

I've gone to more than a few bar fights as an LEO, rarely are they epic battles. Sometimes its a push and shove chest thumping drunken machismo. Sometimes its hair pulling and slapping on the female side.

Judging by the occasional newsy story here, they are not uncommon. They spill out into the streets and once in awhile they end with a stabbing. But then, we have a large population of young people. We have a large population of young people who hang around town because there are other young people. Most are good college kids and a few are hanging on the fringe. There is one area where it seems something happens every Friday night.

I work part time for a small local PD in Arkansas. We are on the Interstate so we see more trouble than most cities our size. We have about 6 to 8 what you would call fair size bars or clubs in the city and we will get a call about once every two months or so. Most all clubs will have some bouncer or owner that takes care people who start to get rowdy and keeps most of them in line. Most of our trouble with drunken bar patrons seems to occur at the local all night eateries between 2 and 4 in the morning.

I would guess that about ever two to four years or so there will be a big “bar clearing” fight where 5 to 6 officers will have to show up to sort it all out where some 5 to 20 people may be involved in one way or another. This usually makes for great stories to be told for the next several years.

Now with that said let me tell you some funny war stories. I lived in the Houston Texas area for some 20 years before retiring and moving back home. Back in the mid 70’s when Mickey Gilley’s in Pasa-get-down-dena was starting to become a big thing, I knew a crew of construction workers with one boy lived about 4 blocks from the club on a back street. He and his friends about once a month would meet at his house about noon and sit out on the front porch and start drinking and taking some painkillers they happen to have lying around. When the got good and loose they would walk over to Gilley’s and try to find some cowboys to fight. And most always there would be some like minded people to accommodate them. Most time the bouncers would just pull them all apart and send everyone home as long as they were not to drunk to drive. No problem they were walking.

Now the stuff of legends, the biggest fight ever in Gilley’s that had the most arrests, most LEO going to the hospital to be patched up and damage done in the building was a teacher’s group from Baytown just across the ship channel. I do not know how it started who else was involved or the total number that was there for this meeting of destiny. I just got to hear some of the war stories that went around.

I've gone to more than a few bar fights as an LEO, rarely are they epic battles. Sometimes its a push and shove chest thumping drunken machismo. Sometimes its hair pulling and slapping on the female side.

Once in a great while, the epic battle happens.

Not had your level of experience.

However, sound about right to me -- albeit I did walk into an inter-service-branch bar clearer one time in Norfolk, but that's another story.

As a Marine, I have been in a few. Its not just an American thing either. I have been in bar fights all around the world. I have never been in an epic bar fight, maybe at the most 5 sailors agains 2 of us! JK. They have been small.

I slung drinks in sports bars all through college and have never seen a single barfight.

On the other hand, if you go to bars frequented by the Outlaws or the Chain Driven Cowboys back in the eighties... well, the boys can get into a tussle every once in a while... and nothing beats watching two liquored-up biker babes in a clothing-ripping catfight...

The average rate at the two bars I am thinking of was about 1 per week...

"Who is to say that I am not an instrument of karma? Indeed, who is to say that I am not the very hand of God himself, dispatched by the Almighty to smite the Philistines and hypocrites, to lay low the dishonest and corrupt, and to bust the jawbone of some jackass that sodesperately deserves it?"

I've gone to more than a few bar fights as an LEO, rarely are they epic battles. Sometimes its a push and shove chest thumping drunken machismo. Sometimes its hair pulling and slapping on the female side.

Clubs around here have a lot of fights, every few weeks one will get large enough to make the news. There are frequently stabbings downtown, again at the clubs.
The bars tend to be a little lower key. It seems to happen infrequently, and when a fight does break out it is usually 2 guys and over pretty quick.

During my single days I frequented the bars quite a bit. While there were occasional fights, I never saw the Hollywood bar room brawl. Most fights consisted of a little pushing and a few fist swung. Never any beer bottle hits or weapons pulled.

During my single days I frequented the bars quite a bit. While there were occasional fights, I never saw the Hollywood bar room brawl. Most fights consisted of a little pushing and a few fist swung. Never any beer bottle hits or weapons pulled.

Oh, I have... saw a guy get gut-stabbed... also saw a guy get clocked with the fat end of a pool cue... dropped like a rock. Also saw a rather small but very irate redheaded woman throw a pool ball full-tilt into her apparently unfaithful husband/boyfriend's forehead. Out like a light, ambulance called, with a goose egg on his forehead that was almost as large as the pool ball.

I got suckerpunched in a bar... some guy who seemed to think I insulted his inbred, redneck, horizontally-challenged family tree sidled up on my 8 o'clock and gave me a shot right in the eye. It stunned me... my head was all warm and tingly, but I didn't go down. I admit, nobody was more surprised than me that I was still upright... that turned out to be one hell of a shiner...

Sadly for him, three rather large and hairy urban motorcycle enthusiasts (whose only interest was world peace and brotherhood) escorted him out to the parking lot, where he received a sustained pummeling and a stern lecture about the high price of reconstructive dental surgery... And I got to keep his cowboy hat...

"Who is to say that I am not an instrument of karma? Indeed, who is to say that I am not the very hand of God himself, dispatched by the Almighty to smite the Philistines and hypocrites, to lay low the dishonest and corrupt, and to bust the jawbone of some jackass that sodesperately deserves it?"